Houghton Library, Harvard University

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

This week, we have a book whose ownership can be traced back three generations: first to the Santo Domingo family; then to Gérard Nordmann, from whose estate the Santo Domingos purchased it; and finally to René Bonnel, publisher of the work, for this was his personal copy. Paul Verlaine’s Hombres, published in an edition of 100 copies (plus this special copy printed for Bonnel), reprints Verlaine’s erotic poetry collection, also including a facsimile of a manuscript letter written by Verlaine (the “lettre de Paliseul” referred to beneath the title) and a transcription of the same. In Bonnel’s private copy, however, the original letter is bound into the volume alongside the facsimile; the letter offers a glimpse both of Verlaine’s original hand and of his scatological sense of humor: